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Brethren I wonder if that is not doing almost exactly what
Ananias and Sapphira did! Please read that again -- it is in Acts
5:1-11. They professed that they put in the amount they sold their
property for. Peter said THEY LIED to THE HOLY SPIRIT. They
DROPPED DEAD! If YOU profess that what you put in the Holy Day
offering is a SPECIAL HOLY DAY OFFERING, when it is only a regular
offering, is not that about the same thing? Brethren, in the name
of Jesus Christ I say I WOULD BE AFRAID to do such a thing!
PLEASE, for your own sake -- for you are being judged BY
GOD -- send ALL the tithes and regular offerings to Headquarters by
mail as usual, and let the Holy Day offerings be EXTRA and SPECIAL
offerings! If this means that instead of a $75,000 offering at a
Feast, we only have a $25,000 offering -- while the income at
Headquarters remains normal, THAT WILL BE BETTER! The example I
set for you is that the offering I make on Holy Days is special and
extra. No one likes to see these SPECIAL offerings swell 'way up
big' more than I. I try to HELP swell them up, as those who count
the money may know. But they should be SPECIAL offerings. They
should swell up the income at Headquarters, not just bring it to
the same normal it would have been anyway.
One other thing. For the month before the Feast of
Tabernacles, the income always SAGS DOWN below normal. Many
Brethren have either NEGLECTED to save all their second tithe, or
have "borrowed" (the word should be "stolen") from it for other
purposes through the year. Then, when the Feast is coming they
take from tithes or offerings, beginning about a month ahead,
apparently feeling they won't be able to go otherwise. IT IS
NECESSARY WE LEARN HOW TO HANDLE GOD'S MONEY. The second and third
tithes are as much GOD'S as the first -- even though He has
directed that you spend the second on yourself -- and also the
"Levite" (in this N.T. time God's ministers) and others, and the
third for the poor, etc. But God has directed HOW and WHEN to use
it. To "borrow" from it is disobedience to God's directions.
I know Brethren, that we all like to have large Holy Day
offerings. We like to keep swelling them up larger than the year
before. But I would much rather have the special Holy Day
offerings lower and keep the receipt of tithes and regular
offerings up to normal at Headquarters. So I ask you, PLEASE,
continue to mall in your tithes and regular offerings -- and
special offerings for the building fund -- during the Feast periods
the same as regularly. Let the special Holy Day offerings be JUST
THAT -- special Holy Day offerings that are IN ADDITION TO what you
would send in if we did not have this special offering.
One other thing is VERY IMPORTANT.
Let me explain it. You know how King David had a great
desire to build a HOUSE FOR GOD at the Headquarters of that time,
which God has chosen. God said to David "Thou didst well that lt
was in thine heart." (l Kings 8:17-18.) However, because David was
a man of war, and had killed so many men, God said the Temple was
to be built -- but not by David, but by his son Solomon when
Solomon became King.